Intrinsic motivation always follows action. That's why it's such a pain in the butt. You wont feel motivated to do it until you've started, but we dont want to start until we feel motivated. This can be especially true after a long break, or starting something completely new; instances where you feel like you wont be as good as you used to be or as good as you are at something else, which actively de-motivates you. The first step is acknowledging you need to start again, and will need to brush up a bit because not only have you taken a break, but you took a break because you injured your hand. It probably wont be the best work you've ever done. It also wont be the best work you're going to do once you get back in to regular practice. The second step is trying to find an extrinsic motivation and see if it helps kick start you. This can be iffy - the wrong extrinsic motivation can backfire horribly. For me, I have things I think about and "want" that I know wont make me feel bad in the long run. I imagine the work I want to be able to produce, and how it will feel to have the finished panels and characters in front of me on the page. I make sure the extrinsic motivation is something entirely independent of how other people think or react. Eg, I dont think about "If I get good I can sell this for money", I think "If I get good I will have this painting I have desperately wanted to be able to create". Make sure that kick-starting motivation doesnt depend on something that can fail (you'll only sell things if other people buy it, which you do not control) and has a defined success (I will end up with these paintings because I will be doing them, they only wont happen if I dont want them anymore). This attitude has helped me enjoy what you would consider the more boring, repetitive, and painful parts of practice as well. I have to draw something terribly 100 times to put out a decent one? The more terrible drawings I do the more motivated I get, because I know that drawing I really, really want is only available on the other side of these awful ones. I see all these failures as the steps on the pathway to achieving what I want, and it becomes very easy to pick up a pencil and do some bad goofy drawings. It can be demotivating to do all the hard work that doesnt end up in something flashy or inherently rewarding. Linking it to your goals and wants helps you enjoy it. My intrinsic motivation to draw has increased with continued practice - it has become habit, something I do without thinking. This only happened because, for ages, I made myself pick up a pencil or a brush and go do it regardless of whether I wanted to or not. When this ebbs, these days, my extrinsic motivation is there to give me a kick start.

Help! Can the cylinders on a finger be rotated slightly relating to each other or must they all adhere to the same vanishish point? I drew according to the former, but I have a feeling the latter is correct.

Hey guys, back here again with some more gesture practice, these are my recent one’s. I tried to flow more with my lines using the CSI method, as well as connecting the gesture lines from the neck or collar bone, into the leg. Basically I am trying to really use as less lines as I can and combine the gesture line with the longest curve. What more can I improve on?

You want to think about which way the object is angled relative to where you (the camera) are looking from. You are looking from roughly the middle of this figure. The hips are angled forward, and you are looking down at them, therefore you can see their top plane. The torso is tilted back and you are looking basically up at them, therefore you can see the bottom plane. If you were positioned above the model, the hips would be tilted towards you and you would still see the top plane. But, now positioned above the model, you cannot see the bottom plane of the torso. However, whether or not you can see the top plane is dependent on how far the torso is leaning away from you. You might be able to see all, some, or none of it depending on how far back it is tilted.

I cant work out how to rotate any of the models on the plane of the image - as in, if you kept it facing the way it is but turned it 90 degrees. When I rotate the model up or down, and then try to turn it to the side, the model returns to looking straight to the side. Are there any shortcuts Im missing to rotate this specifically on one axis?

It's a relatively large area of one of the higher values in the piece. There are no other areas with that bright/high in value anywhere near that size, which means it dominates what your eye wants to look at. In the cropped image that this website shows as a preview, you cannot see the tree at all, and the only bright areas are on your two subjects. There is nothing competing for your attention. In the full image you have brightly lit man, tiger and then... big tree. In the rest of the piece you have set up the understanding that the relevant action is lit by the fire light. It is natural that you would then keep looking to the largest area covered in that light - you are anticipating it being important. Try reducing how bright and how much that single tree contrasts with all of your other background/framing foliage. You can either light it differently - much weaker - or make the tree smaller/further to the edge of the image so less of it is present in the scene.